A&E

[imanastronaut]

I’m currently sat in A&E for an injury. Multiple people have been walking in and out (they’re patients) to pick up takeaways, go outside for a cigarette, go to the vending machines etc. patients are wearing wristbands so it’s obvious who’s who!

AIBU to think if you can do that, you should be directed away from A&E to somewhere more appropriate for a minor injury?!

A lot of people are told to go to a&e by their GPS or 111 so I wouldn't assume it was their first port of call.

A&E should still be able to direct them elsewhere though. There’s some women who have walked in with shopping bags because the issue is so small they could wait!

You have no idea why they're there. You would be amazed at how seriously ill someone can be and still smoke and eat.

If they have wrist bands on then they have been triaged and accepted as patients.
So the medical experts have decided it's fine for them to be there.
Mind your own business.
You have no idea why they are there.

You can’t be that seriously ill if you can stuff a packet of Doritos down your neck and smoke a cigarette!!!

Someone has just turned up because their antibiotics aren’t working ffs. Go to your GP!

You should offer your services as triage. Instead of having a medical professional looking at symptoms, you can clearly do it far more efficiently just by looking at people.

I was in A&E recently for a v serious heart
issue and I looked fine- Could walk and talk and looked the picture of health. It’s what lies underneath that matters…

@imanastronaut get back to us in a couple of hours when you are hungry so you suddenly realise the vending machine or a takeaway delivery is a really good idea 😂

Back when I was a smoker, I snapped my leg in 2 places, all I wanted was a cigarette and I had one as soon as I got a wheelchair.

Somewhere else? Where? What if there isn’t a Minor Injuries or an Urgent Care unit in the area?

In any case, the MIU or UCU might be in the same building as the A&E. I’ve been sent to an Urgent Care Unit that shared a waiting room with the A&E. You could not tell who was waiting for which. No doubt some A&E patients were cross that I was seen before them, yet I was on a completely different pathway.

Presumably they've been triaged and are in a&e because they need to be. The first thing that happens at ours is you are triaged and sent to MI, OOH GP or kept in A&E.

jfc what a stickybeak

I was vaping outside a&e and pacing up and down. Capable of eating and making a phone call etc
I needed spinal surgery, I was right to be there

I’m in so much pain I can’t eat! Because I need to be here.

I was suggested to go to a&e because I lost the feeling in my saddle area, which is an emergency. I needed an emergency scan to check it wasn't going to be paralysis by 2pm. Where else would a&e send me?

I could easily scoff a bag of Doritos while I was there.

Not everyone that needs a&e is in severe pain. There is a massive overuse of a&e, we all know that, but you have no idea what is actually wrong with the other people waiting.

But notably not in too much pain to notice what other people are doing and post on mumsnet 🤣.

You're also in so much pain you can't eat yet you're on your phone on Mumsnet, some people might judge you for that as you are well enough for social media so why are you in a&e 🤷

Don’t be so ridiculous.

I spent 16 hours in A&E with my husband at the start of this year because he felt unwell.

He was dead 4 months later and yet we were in and out to the hospital shop, to make phone calls, to get coffee etc.

You have absolutely no clue OP.

Exactly! Take a couple of paracetamol, OP, and wait until your GP can fit you in 🙄

Perhaps your frustration should be more at the poorly resourced department where many of these people have been waiting so long. Perhaps if their issues are small or easily solvable, a well staffed and resourced department would be able to get them seen and through before they’re hungry.

Don’t blame the patients.
Dont blame the departments.
Blame a line of successive ineffective governments who are allowing our absolutely most precious British institution be ground down to dust while we sit and moan.

Sitting quietly scrolling isn’t the same thing as vaping, eating or pacing about

I had severe preeclampsia and wasn’t allowed to leave the hospital until I delivered … yet I had managed a full day in work a few hours earlier. It’s not always obvious how seriously ill someone is.

I'm just saying this very much a pot kettle situation

We don’t have an urgent care centre less than a hour away so we quite often get directed to A&E where you have to wait in the main area to be triaged and then sent to certain sections depending on the problem.

Last time I went to A&E I had to wait 34 hours for a bed. I was unwell enough to be admitted but I still ate in that time?? My mum made me a jacket potato and brought it up for me 😂